Patient and Powerful Subversiveness in a World Where Sin and Death Seem to Reign

The Generations of Man and the Purpose of God

(Genesis 35:16-29, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 21, 2015)

[16] Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. [17] And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” [18] And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. [19] So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), [20] and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. [21] Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

Benjamin was born. Rachel died in childbirth. Jacob did not expect that the woman of his dreams would be gone in just a moment. He committed her body to the ground as people of faith have done for centuries, hoping in a life beyond death.

[22] While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it.

Meanwhile Jacob's oldest son, Reuben, had a sexual liaison with his half-brothers' mother. That was a bizarre action—most likely a power play that had serious consequences for Jacob's estimation of his son's character. Many years later when Jacob was about to die, he said this about Reuben: “Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!” (Genesis 49:4)

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. [23] The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. [24] The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. [25] The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali. [26] The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Despite these great disappointments, Jacob was a man who had been uncommonly blessed by God. We are reminded of his twelve sons grouped by their four mothers. The Lord's normal plan for future generations would not be one man with two wives and two additional concubines, but one man and one woman. (Matthew 19) The larger story of Christ and His bride, the church, insisted on this.

[27] And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. [28] Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. [29] And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Isaac, Jacob's father, died at 180, far older than he himself had expected when he blessed Jacob thinking that Jacob was instead Esau. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The tribes of Israel had their purpose. From the Jews would come the Messiah, the Husband of a very fruitful church.

Put the Word to Work: Our lives move from one generation to the next. We need a heart of wisdom to live well (Psalm 90). Our hope is in God, who dwells within the hearts of mortal beings. He has determined to make us into His dwelling place in Christ. His way of multi-generational sacrificial love is still the best. In a time of speedy upheaval, the church's traditions of stable living are delightfully subversive. Pursue them with the grace that God supplies through life and death, through joy and sorrow. Let the God of Jacob be your delight and your focus through it all. He has determined to live close enough to you to have a constant relationship with you and your loved ones in the church that He has called His own children, His Son's bride, and the body of Christ.

Memory Verse from the Songs of Ascents—Psalm 132:2-5

[2] how he swore to the LORD
and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
[3] “I will not enter my house
or get into my bed,
[4] I will not give sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
[5] until I find a place for the LORD,
a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Gospel Reading—Matthew 22:34-40 – The great commandment